Nightingales and bombers

hi,
just found this recording don’t know if its been heard or mentioned on here, titled “Audio from the past(E01)-ww2 Avro Lancaster Crew Radio” 9.44 long… search on YouTube. Reported to be a 207Sq crew, made up of Pilot- K.Letford.
FE – C.Stewart.
BA – W.Bray.
WO – W.Sparkes. (what else)
AG – J.Fieldman.
AG – H.Devenish.
NAV – Conneley. RAAF.

regards,
jack…

Apologies for ‘bumping’ this thread, but I am still curious as per my post above.

From my understanding, the ‘bomber stream’ was a single column of bombers, which doesn’t seem to be what we are hearing on the recording. Are we simply only hearing a couple of squadrons passing over at lower altitude or some form of modified recording, with volume fades introduced artificially to add weight and poignancy to what would otherwise be a fairly monotonous drone?

I read this thread a while ago, and then promptly forgot about it. As mentioned in another thread on the same topic, Manfred Mann featured a processed version of this recording on their track ‘As Above So Below’ on the ‘Nightingales and Bombers’ album. I don’t really understand why they used the sample in this track in particular. What is interesting is the stereo separation between the sound of the nightingale and the sound of the bombers on the track. Manfred Mann and co have clearly cut the tape of the bomber engines in a few places, or simply edited out sections with the birdsong, and then punched in a nightingale from another source, such as the EMI sample library.

I presumed that the BBC engineer who captured the original recording would have only been able to record in mono. However, whilst original copies of the recording I’ve heard have been in mono, there is an odd phasing artifact in the sound of the bombers themselves, which could arise from a clumsy mix down of a stereo recording into mono or, alternatively, a wandering tape azimuth on an originally stereo recording. Another possibility is that the bombers and nightingale were recorded at different times and mixed together or otherwise enhanced somehow to create a more poignant mix that enhances one element or the other?

Does anybody know roughly what altitude the bombers will have been passing at and whether we are hearing the full stream passing in a couple of waves or simply a smaller subset of the bombers listed by David_Kavangh above? Perhaps a daft question, but because I will never get to see or hear a ‘bomber stream’ in the flesh I am curious as to what exactly I am hearing.

The Lancaster sans mid upper gun turret is NX611, now know as Just Jane. The photo was taken when the aircraft was still flying in late 60s the HAPS. There are still a couple of bumps on the top of the fuselage from its French Aeronavale days.

That’s amazing. Something very emotive about the sound of nature interspersed with the sound of those bombers overhead. Thanks for posting.

There is one famous live recording of the Berlin Philharmonic playing very late in the war with the sound of an allied air raid heard in the background.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY7lvuVjjX4

Trumper..

..’look mummy, there’s an aeroplane up in the sky..”

Powerful stuff, that.

Amazing.
Out of curiously, are there other recordings of a bomber stream passing?

Very poignant .The skylarks were singing their heads off today in the sun ,just wonderful.Listening to this i somehow expected Pink Floyd to start playing something soft and quiet in the background as well.

You’re listening to the sound of 105 Wellingtons, 31 Stirlings, 29 Halifaxes, 15 Hampdens, 13 Lancasters and 4 Manchesters. Heading for Mannheim on 19 May 1942. 11 aircraft didn’t come back.
Quite a well known recording now that it’s available as a download and on CD. I first heard this on the radio, a programme called, “Down Your Way”, believe it or not, in the early 1970s.
A very atmospheric recording.